840 INSECTA—TERMITES. 
In short, it differs so much from its form and appearance im the other twe 
states, that it has never been supposed to be the same animal, but by those 



si 
who nave seen it in the same nests: and some of these have distrusted the 
evidence of their senses. It was so long before I met with them in their 
nests myself, that I doubted the information that was given me by the natives, 
that they belonged to the same family. Indeed we may open twenty nests 
without finding one winged one, for those are to be found only just before 
the commencement of the rainy season, when they undergo the last change, 
which is preparative to their colonization. 
“Tn the winged state, they have also much altered their size as well as 
form. Their bodies now measure between six or seven tenths of an inch in 
length, and their wings above two inches and a half from tip to tip, and 
they are equal in bulk to about thirty laborers, or two soldiers. They are 
now also furnished with two large eyes placed on each side of the head, and 
very conspicuous. If they have any before, they are not easily to be distin- 
guished. Probably in the two first states, their eyes, if they have any, may 
be small like those of moles; for as they live like these animals always un- 
der ground, they have as little occasion for these organs, and it is not to be 
wondered at that wé do not discover them; but the case is much altered 
when they arrive at the winged state in which they are to roam, though but 
for a few hours, through the wide air, and explore new and distant regions. 
In this form the animal comes abroad during or soon after the first tornado, 
which, at the latter end of the dry season proclaims the approach of the 
ensuing rains, and seldom waits for a second or third shower, if the first, as 
1s generally the case, happens in the night, and brings much wet after it. 
The quantities that are to be found the next morning all over the surface of 
the earth, but particularly on the waters, is astonishing ; for their wings are 
only calculated to carry them a few hours, and after the rising of the sun 
not one in a thousand is to be found with four wings, unless the morning 
continues rainy, when here and there a solitary being is seen winging its 
way from one pla~e to another, as if solicitous only to avoid its numerous 
enemies, particul: rly various species of ants which are hunting on every 
spray, on every leaf, and in every possible place, for this unhappy race, of 
which probably not a pair in many millions get into a place of safety, fulfil 
the first law of nature, and lay the foundation of a new community. 
v 
